Baebele e e Boitshepo

Setswana Central Bible (New Orthography)

Alphabet: Latin

Copyright:

Date: 1908

Language: Tswana [tsn]

Description: Tswana is a Bantu language of Botswana. There are 1,860,000 speakers. Other names for the language are Beetjuans, Chuana, Coana, Cuana, and Sechuana. Ethnic Tswana made up approximately 79% of the population of Botswana in 2011.
In the nineteenth century, a common spelling and pronunciation of Batswana was Bechuana. Europeans therefore referred to the area inhabited by the Tswana as Bechuanaland. In the Tswana language, however, Botswana is the name for the country of the Tswana.
The republic of Botswana (formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland) is named for the Tswana people. The country's eight major tribes speak Tswana, which is also called Setswana. All have a traditional Paramount Chief, styled Kgosikgolo, who is entitled to a seat in the Ntlo ya Dikgosi (an advisory body to the country's Parliament). The Tswana dynasties are all related. A person who lives in Botswana is a Motswana and the plural is Batswana.
The three main branches of the Tswana tribe formed during the 17th century. Three brothers, Kwena, Ngwaketse and Ngwato, broke away from their father, Chief Molope, to establish their own tribes in Molepolole, Kanye and Serowe, probably in response to drought and expanding populations in search of pasture and arable land.
The largest number of ethnic Tswana people actually live in South Africa. They are one of the largest ethnic groups in the country, and the Tswana language is one of eleven official languages in South Africa. There were over 4 million Tswana speakers in the country in 2012, with North West Province having a majority of Tswana speakers. From 1948-1994, South African Tswana people were defined by the Apartheid regime to be citizens of Bophuthatswana, one of ten Bantustans set up for the purpose of defending the policy of denying black Africans citizenship in South Africa.